Finding Balance
by moonstone glows
Summary: The Dark side clouds everything, even to eyes that should see through the murk with ease. Darth Sidious has miscalculated, drastically, and the waiting game for his enemies is now at an end, and Balance is at hand.
1. Chapter 1

Darth Vader watched the Millennium Falcon blast out of the Death Star hanger, a monolithic black statue above the crumpled robe and dropped lightsaber. His respirator hissed as he breathed out, summoning the 'saber to his hand and striding from the deck, pulling him comm. from his belt as he walked.

"Tarkin, the ship has left the Death Star, commence tracking as ordered. I will be in my quarters, and have no wish to be disturbed, is that understood?"

"Perfectly, Lord Vader, we will track those rebels, they cannot escape us," Tarkin's obsequious reply came back.

Vader cut the channel and strode into his quarters, sensing the presence immediately.

"They are away?" asked the familiar voice.

"They are away, my Master, but…"

"But you still don't see why you couldn't take the children?" his Master asked from where he was leaning against the wall, beside the door.

"Yes, Master," he acknowledged, turning.

"Because if we fail Anakin, if we are wrong, if we have mistimed this, then _they _will truly be the last hope of defeating Palpatine, even if it would mean handing all back over to the _Light_," he sighed, sneering over the last word.

"We will not fail, my Master, I am sure, we have sacrificed too much to allow him to defeat us," Vader said stoutly, offering out the lightsaber he held, the one he had picked up in the bay.

"I have missed you, my young apprentice," Obi-Wan sighed, pushing away from the wall to stand before the towering figure, and taking the 'saber before

tapping lightly on the armored chest.

"Shall we dispense with the trappings of our long subterfuge?"

Vader reached up and flicked off the respirator, before tugging off the helmet and mask, cool yellow irises gazing steadily down at Obi-Wan from a pale, yet unmarked face, under dark blonde hair cut even closer than it had been in his days as a Padawan in the Temple.

"Your curls," Obi-Wan said regretfully, stroking his fingers over the severe cut.

"They will grow back," Vader shrugged, stroking a gloved hand lightly over his mentor's weathered face.

"I am more concerned about you," he pointed out.

"Nothing that a long hot shower and a few chemicals won't take care of, for the most part. I suspect there will be more real white in my hair than I appreciate when this stuff is washed off," he laughed in dark amusement.

"It almost stopped my heart, seeing you look so old, so frail. I thought for one horrible moment we had waited too long, then of course, you Force jumped like a Antraki gazelle chased by a Rancor," he snorted.

"Whatever works, as long as everyone now thinks I'm dead, we have an advantage."

"What of Yoda?"

"He is no threat to us, he is old, weak, and trapped, he cannot get off Dagobah unless someone with a ship goes there for him. He can stay where he is for now, if we do not succeed, young Luke will need the little troll," Obi-Wan shrugged, sea green eyes darkening slightly as he looked up at the other man.

"Shower," he demanded, pulling the taller figure through to the other room, the dark bedchamber with its small, private, attached fresher.

/x/

Anakin lay on his side in the bed, his head propped on his prosthetic arm, while the fingers of his natural hand ghosted lightly though Obi-Wan's hair, now restored to its proper red/brown tones, although as predicted, laced with white, across skin no longer artificially aged, before stroking over unfamiliar scars on the warm skin of his Master's back.

"I fell, in the canyons, dodging a troupe of Tuskan raiders who were too focused for me to scare off, the first year I was laying low on Tatooine," Obi-Wan murmured sleepily, answering the unspoken question.

"I should have been with you, guarding your back," Anakin growled darkly.

"That would rather have defeated the point of lying low, apprentice mine. Besides, of the two of us, you had the more dangerous task as it was, your risk of being discovered was _far _higher than mine. If Palpatine were not so arrogant in his assurance that you were his…"

"He was always arrogant, he always thought he saw all, but his own Darkness was blinding _him _just as much as he sneered that it blinded the Jedi," Anakin growled.

Obi-Wan rolled over onto his back, looking up at Anakin in the darkness, smiling faintly as Anakin stroked his thumb idly over Obi-Wan's cheek, before leaning down to kiss him.

"I am so glad that I will never have to call that worm Master again, I am so glad to have you back."

Obi-Wan threaded fingers into short blond hair, intending to pull Anakin back down into another kiss when he stilled, eyes losing focus and shifting to a stormy grey, flecked with yellow.

"We need to leave, now Anakin," he said slowly, rolling away from him and grabbing his clothes as soon as his vision cleared.

"Master?"

"They're about to locate the Falcon's tracker, we need to be off this space station before it takes up pursuit."

"What's wrong?"

"This station is doomed, it's going to be destroyed when it reaches its destination, we need to be off before that happens."

Anakin was up and pulling his armor back on instantly, the Vader persona snapping in around him again.

"You'll probably be faster going ahead of me, you might draw attention accidentally if you're with me, people tend to notice me regardless of what I do, here, let me give you the route to the right docking bay," Anakin said, holding out one gloved hand toward Obi-Wan's forehead.

The smaller man stepped into the contact without hesitation, making Anakin swallow a knot of love, protectiveness and pure joy that he was so trusted by this man, he could kill him with a thought in this position, and he trusted him not to, and _that _was why Palpatine would _never _wrest his loyalty from Obi-Wan. He gently implanted the route to the docking bay, and indicated Vader's private ship, and Obi-Wan vanished out of the door while Anakin pulled on his mask and helmet, remembering to turn on his respirator before stepping out into the corridor in a swirl of black.

"Tarkin, I am returning to Coruscant on urgent business," he barked into his comm. as he walked.

"But, my Lord, we have just discovered the location the escaped rebels fled to."

"Good, as soon as I am clear, follow them, you _will _retrieve those plans and capture the rebel leaders, failure will not be tolerated," he commanded, privately wondering how the idiotic Moff was going to manage to lose the station to the rebels, not that it mattered much, he supposed, as long as it was destroyed.

"Yes, my Lord Vader," Tarkin replied, vaguely huffily.

Vader boarded his ship, scanning quickly, and sensed his Master's muted Force presence in the passenger bay, barely registering, except to someone intimately familiar with it. He must have dropped himself into a deep trance to make sure sensors picked up no life signs other than the one that belonged here, should anyone be looking when they left. Firing up the engines, he lifted off, guiding the ship out of the bay, and away from the station, which lumbered into hyperspace as soon as they were clear.

Setting the autopilot to hold their position for the moment, he headed back into the passenger compartment, finding Obi-Wan lying on his back on one of the benches, his hands folded over his stomach, still as death. He shuddered at the thought, and reached out mentally, lightly brushing over his Master's shields, letting him know they were clear of the Death Star, and then headed back to the cockpit, pulling off his helmet and mask as he went, putting them aside. It would take at least half an hour for Obi-Wan to surface from that deep, and there was no point in setting a course until he had his Master's instructions, he might not be ready for them to head to Coruscant yet.

Instead, he used the Force to pop open a secret panel in the wall of the cockpit, pulling out a heavily shielded box, and sitting down in the pilots seat before flipping the lid open to reveal a partially disassembled lightsaber, the crystal and the power cell nestled separate to the pieces of the handle. He had been guardian of this lightsaber for a very long time; it was time to finally finish assembling it for its rightful owner.

Obi-Wan moved into the cockpit just as he was finishing it, and he looked up with a smile, holding the hilt out to him.

"Your lightsaber, my Master," he said with a smile.

"You kept hold of it, all this time?"

"Of course I did Master, it was yours," he said simply.

Turning the hilt away from Anakin, and the controls, Obi-Wan activated it, watching the crimson blade extend with a faint smile, his eyes distant.

"What are you thinking?" Anakin queried softly.

"Nothing much, just wondering how things would have been different, if I hadn't turned when I did."

"We would have destroyed each other," Anakin said with soft certainty.

Obi-Wan looked up, studying him for a long moment, and then nodded slowly, deactivating the blade and clipping the 'saber to his belt, beside the blue bladed one he had carried for so long.

"You are correct, my apprentice, we would indeed have destroyed each other," he agreed, a flash of Mustapha darting across his mind, the feeling that _that _would have happened regardless of which side of the divide Obi-Wan was on, and it would have been much the worse for both of them. He had planned Mustapha carefully, he had seen it coming, and prepared for it; the thought of the real Anakin being mutilated that way, truly turned into the cyborg monster the clone he had substituted there had become, made him feel sick.

"But it didn't happen, it will never happen, I would sooner die than hurt you," Anakin said intensely, possessive protectiveness surging around him.

"And I you, my apprentice, and _that _is why we stand a better than average chance of defeating him, because we stand strong, _together_. The Sith have always failed before because there is nothing but suspicion, mistrust, jealousy and a desire for power between the Master and apprentice. He may be powerful, steeped longer in the Dark side than even I have been alive, but he stands _alone_."

"Together always, my Master," Anakin swore, his eyes burning bright gold with the intensity of the vow, and just for a heartbeat, Obi-Wan's own eyes flared gold in response to the surge of dark, wild energy, his own Darkness briefly breaking free of the shields that had hidden it for so long from Yoda and the other Jedi, not to mention Sidious himself.

"Are we going to Coruscant now, Master?" Anakin asked, turning back to the controls as Obi-Wan slid into the co-pilot seat.

"Yes, we're not ready to confront him just yet, we need time to allow our bonds to settle back into place properly, we've been apart too long, but soon, soon we will take him. What excuse will you offer for leaving the Death Star and returning to Coruscant so conveniently before its destruction?"

"I will have to report to him finding and killing my former Jedi Master, he wanted to be personally informed of any Jedi I encountered and executed."

"He won't be suspicious, if you don't bring a body back?"

"No, I never have before, I always took…" he fell silent, his eyes flicking to Obi-Wan's belt, were two lightsabers hung.

"You took their lightsabers?"

"Yes."

Obi-Wan unclipped his Jedi lightsaber and held it out to Anakin without hesitation.

"I won't be needing it anymore," he said, shrugging. Allowing Anakin to use it to convince Palpatine that he had defeated Obi-Wan was better than destroying it.

/x/

Palpatine lounged on his throne staring out into the Coruscant night, watching the traffic streaming by, his subjects, going on about their lives as they had always done, provided they bowed to his will, of course. He heard the door hiss open and turned, eying the bulky, black armored figure who stepped in coldly.

"You left your post, Lord Vader, the Death Star has been destroyed, what excuse do you have?"

"A Jedi was with those who came to rescue the rebel princess," Vader said, going down on one knee and holding out the lightsaber, and hoping Palpatine didn't notice he hadn't addressed him as 'master', he wouldn't, ever again, unless he had to.

"Who? Who did you kill?" Palpatine asked gleefully, leaning forward to snatch the lightsaber.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"Finally, you brought down your former master, and without losing any limbs this time," Palpatine cackled spitefully.

Anakin remained silent, waiting for Palpatine to dismiss him or torture him, or give him orders.

"Tell me, my apprentice, give me all the details of his death," Palpatine demanded.

Gritting his teeth mentally, Anakin told him about the battle in the hanger bay, embellishing slightly where he could, but making sure to mention that Obi-Wan's body had vanished when the lightsaber hit him, just in case someone else had already reported that to Palpatine, Anakin knew the sleemo had spies everywhere, even among his 'loyal' forces.

"Good, good, they should all be gone now," Palpatine cackled, turning back to face the windows again.

"Get out; I will summon you when I have new orders for you."

Anakin returned home, co-incidentally or not, the same apartment Padmé had once lived in, he had often wondered if Palpatine had had malicious reasons for assigning it to him, or if he had honestly thought it would please him to live there. He had long since messed with all of the security systems so that he would know if anyone was actively monitoring him, and the place was swept daily for bugs by droids he had built specifically for the purpose, so he felt safe enough calling out the moment he entered the apartment.

"I'm back, Master."

Obi-Wan wandered out of the reception room, now dressed in black pants, black boots and a black shirt, his hair slightly damp, indicating he had showered while Anakin was gone.

"How did it go?"

"He accepted my reason for leaving the Death Star, which has indeed been destroyed, although he didn't say how, and then he demanded a blow by blow account of how I killed you," Anakin snorted, pulling off the helmet and mask, and starting for the bedroom to work his way out of the armor.

"How do you hide the fact you don't need the armor when he decides to spy on you?" Obi-Wan asked curiously, following.

"The cameras are set to force info-loops into the system if it goes to active monitoring, that is, the moment the cameras are switched on. The sweeper droids take care of any other surveillance, so as long as I stay away from the balcony, I'm fine. As long as you only ever come and go from the landing bay here, he won't see you on the hall monitors before we're ready to put him out of our misery."

"Good, that's good to know. Luke destroyed it, by the way."

"Master?" Anakin asked, totally thrown by the sudden shift in direction.

"The Death Star, young Luke destroyed it, two photon torpedoes at the weak spot, just like another Skywalker I know. He will most certainly be the head of the new Jedi order."

"I do not want to be on the opposite side to my son, Master; can we not bring him to the Dark side?"

"No, no my apprentice we cannot. Balance can only be achieved when the Sith and the Jedi coexist Anakin; that is where both sides have always failed before. Each thought balance could only be achieved by the chosen one, you, choosing one side and annihilating the other, this is not so, you stand with me, in the Dark, and yet your children are the future of the Jedi. _That _is balance, there is _no _Darkness without Light, and there is no _Light _without Darkness. Do you understand, my Anakin?"

"I understand, my Master. The difficulty we face will not be in killing Palpatine, it will be in convincing _them _that they should not then kill _us_."

"Just so, Anakin, just so. I do not know which will distress Luke more, that I lied about his father being dead, or that I faked my death right in front of his eyes," Obi-Wan sighed.

"You know him better than I do, Master," Anakin pointed out without a single sliver of resentment or accusation.

"Yes, and that barely at all, your step-brother was somewhat truculent when it came to allowing me any contact at all with the boy," Obi-Wan hissed in disgust. 20 years on that _kriffing _rock with barely a glimpse of the boy he was meant to guide onto the Jedi path, the only thing he had _agreed _with Yoda over in a very long time, not that he would have told the troll that; it was almost enough to make him wish he had been the one to strike the death blow, to Owen Lars at least, Beru had always been a sweet natured girl, too good for that ill tempered oaf.

"Come to bed, Anakin, there is nothing more that we can do tonight, and I cannot think of a more enticing way to reaffirm our bonds," Obi-Wan sighed, pushing it all aside for now. Focus on the moment, as Qui-Gon had always insisted, first things first, solidify their bonds, kill Palpatine, and _then _worry about convincing the Jedi, aka Luke Skywalker, that they were not the enemy. Simple, he snorted to himself, pushing Anakin down onto the bed.

tbc


	2. Chapter 2

Anakin woke alone as the morning sunlight intruded into the bedroom through shades that hadn't been completely closed the night before. Running his flesh hand over the empty side of the bed, he realized he'd been alone a while; there was no lingering body heat left behind from Obi-Wan's departure. Summoning a silk robe from the well hidden closet he had left open the previous night, he wrapped it around himself, and padded out barefoot, searching for his Master.

He found him in front of the huge picture window, staring out into the sunrise, wearing only the black pants he had been wearing the night before.

"What's wrong?" he asked, seeing the tension in the smaller man's shoulders.

"I'm not sure, there's a vague sense of danger, just at the edge of my senses, but I can't tell _who _is in danger, I've been stood here the last two hours trying to narrow it down."

Anakin closed his eyes, concentrating on centering himself, before reaching out into the Force, searching for whatever his Master was sensing, Obi-Wan had much better perception and finer control, and was a natural precognitive, where others had to work at it, if they could do it at all, but sometimes, raw power could get answers where finesse failed.

"I feel it," he murmured, and a moment later, he felt Obi-Wan's mind focus on his, using his own skills to sharpen Anakin's sheer power, while at the same time, throwing up a powerful shield to stop Palpatine sensing them.

They broke connection a few moments later, two pairs of yellow eyes meeting in unhappy shock.

"Well, that complicates things a little, he must have a source inside the rebel fleet, to enable him to get Luke's name so fast, he'll want him Anakin, you know that, don't you," Obi-Wan sighed as his eyes faded back to grey.

"I know, and he will likely want to send me to get him, under orders to turn him or kill him. What now?"

"Now, we are out of time to wait and plan our movements carefully, he will have to be destroyed now, and instead of running around behind the scenes to persuade the rebellion to ally with us, we will have to hammer out a cease fire with them, once we have taken control of the Empire."

"What about Luke?"

"I will have to go and try to persuade Yoda to go to him and teach him."

"Yoda will kill you if you reveal you are Sith, and he'll want to know why you're not training Luke, why you faked your death, if you don't reveal it."

"He is proclaimed to be the wisest Jedi of our age, or at least he was while the Jedi actually existed, I can only hope he will at least be willing to listen to reason."

"And if not, I'll be there to back you up?"

"No, Anakin, you will remain on Coruscant, I will have more chance of persuading him to listen to me if you are not there, and I will have other tasks in mind for you."

"Such as?" Anakin asked, knowing that he didn't sound best pleased.

"You will need to make a start on bringing the Imperial forces into line, they already see you as their commander anyway, you have all of the necessary codes, you will be best placed to carry out that task."

"All right, I don't like the idea of you facing him without backup, but all right. When do we go after Palpatine?"

"As soon as we can, you're sure he'll send you after Luke?"

"Unless he just wants him dead, not turned, yes. If he doesn't care about trying to turn him, then he'll just send a Hand, one of his assassins."

"We can't chance waiting until he next summons you then, we go now."

"Yes Master," Anakin said tightly.

"We can do this Ani, as long as we fight together, we can do this, just like we did with every other enemy we faced."

"I know we can Master," Anakin whispered, and Obi-Wan turned, pulling him into an embrace.

/x/

Palpatine scowled darkly as Darth Vader entered his throne room, his black cloak swirling around him.

"I did not summon you, my apprentice. You were ordered to remain in your residence until I required your presence," he snarled.

"Ah, but you are not my Master, so I do not feel the need to obey your commands when my true Master countermands you."

"You seek to renounce me; after all I have done for you, keeping you alive after your precious Jedi Master left you to die in the furnace of Mustapha? Giving you position, and power?"

"You have never been my Master, there has only ever been one true Master for me, there will only ever be one true Master for me, and that is not _you_." Anakin snorted, reaching up to switch off the respirator, pleased to see surprise turn to shock as he then took off the helmet and mask, allowing them to drop to the floor.

"You were saying, about keeping me alive?" Anakin mocked.

"No, that isn't possible, I know you never went anywhere near Kamino, you never had a chance to get your injuries seen to by the cloners. H0w, how have you done this thing?"

"My Master saw what was to come in time to make arrangements; you might say he preempted you, if you foresaw Mustapha at all, that is."

"WHO?" Palpatine screamed in anger.

The chamber door slid open once more, and a black cloaked figure glided into the room, hood pulled low over his face, and unlit lightsaber held loosely in his hand.

"My Master," Anakin said, turning to Obi-Wan and bowing his head, he wouldn't risk kneeling to him, not with Palpatine in striking distance, but the reverence in his tone was glaringly obvious, especially to Palpatine, who had never heard such a tone directed his way.

Obi-Wan reached up with his free hand to unclasp the cloak, throwing it off in one smooth motion.

"No, you told me you killed him, you told me he was finally dead…you hate him, hate the Jedi," Palpatine ranted.

"There are no Jedi here, Palpatine," Obi-Wan said icily, allowing the Darkness to cradle him as he lit his lightsaber, followed a beat later by Anakin.

Palpatine stared at the two crimson blades, and two pairs of coldly determined yellow eyes, and rage consumed him.

"Do you really think a pair of fallen Jedi can defeat a true Sith?" he shrieked, his lightsaber appearing in his hand as if from nowhere, instantly lit.

The two of them smoothly stepped away from one another, forcing Palpatine to choose one or the other of them as his target. As they had thought he would when they decided to stick to the tried and tested method of making their opponent angry enough with them to make him sloppy, careless, Palpatine's rage made him focus on Obi-Wan, who had been a bane to him for a long time, and had also it seemed denied him the apprentice he had thought his for 20 years. He lunged wildly at Obi-Wan, swinging his lightsaber in an attempt to separate his head from his shoulders, but at the last instant, altering the swing to try to bisect his torso instead. Obi-Wan easily deflected the rather obvious move, and his free hand came up between them; Palpatine braced for the Force push he was expecting, forgetting that this was no Jedi he was faced with, and he was in no way prepared to block the Force lightning that poured into his chest, he staggered two paces backward, impaling himself on Anakin's waiting lightsaber before he even sensed that the younger man was behind him.

"You should have learned from the mistakes of your minions in the past, Palpatine, and then you might have had a chance of making this a worthwhile fight," Obi-Wan said simply as Anakin twisted his lightsaber before jerking it free.

Palpatine crumpled to the floor with a grunt as his lightsaber was _pulled _from his grip to land neatly in Anakin's hand.

"He will betray you too," Palpatine wheezed, glaring at Obi-Wan as his life ebbed, but Obi-Wan just laughed at him, and Palpatine's last sight before he died was of Obi-Wan pulling Anakin's head down to kiss him soundly.

"The Red Guard has to go, they're too deeply tied to him," Obi-Wan murmured when he broke the kiss.

"And the clones?"

"Hopefully, we can simply rescind the order to kill any Jedi they encounter, now that Palpatine is gone. We can't afford to go around slaughtering the majority of our army while the rebellion is still a threat."

"I'll go to the barracks and start dealing with the Red Guard then, please be careful, Master."

"You too, my Anakin."

Obi-Wan watched as Anakin picked up the helmet and mask of his alter ego, sighing as he put them back on, but it would enable him to get close to the Guard, so that he could kill them with minimal risk to himself. When Anakin was gone, he stepped past the cooling body on the floor, entering Palpatine's private office cautiously, half expecting an ambush, but nothing happened, so he went to the desk and started to go through his files.

/x/

Obi-Wan brought his ship into orbit around Dagobah, looking down at the unimpressive looking planet. Anakin had still been protesting him going alone right up until the moment he went into hyperspace, upset that he hadn't even been willing to take a couple of clone troopers, who had proven to be still willing to follow Obi-Wan and Anakin, whichever side they happened to be on, once order 66 had been revoked.

He could sense Yoda down there, so he was fairly certain that Yoda could also sense Obi-Wan close by, but he wasn't sure if Yoda could feel his Darkness or not; he would soon find out, he supposed. Turning his attention back to his controls, Obi-Wan started to guide the ship down close to where he could feel Yoda's presence, searching with the Force for a fairly stable place to land.

He disembarked as soon as he landed, clipping his lightsaber to his belt as he jumped down to the marshy ground. He had been considering leaving it behind, but despite the fact that leaving it might make Yoda less likely to attack before hearing him out, he refused to be unarmed in the event Yoda wouldn't listen, he didn't _think _that the ancient Jedi would attack an unarmed man, but he wasn't willing to bet his life on it. Picking a direction he started to walk, letting the Force guide his feet around the dangerous areas of ground, knowing that there was no point in seeking Yoda, Yoda would find him, when he was good and ready.

"A long way from Tatooine you are, Obi-Wan."

"Yes, well I needed to talk with you, and it was best done in person."

"Talk, or kill?"

"Why would I wish to kill you?"

"Wish to kill all Jedi, do you not, Sith?"

"I would have thought you would be the last person to jump to conclusions Yoda. If I wanted you dead, I would not need to bother coming here to see to it in person, you have no way off this world unless myself or Bail Organa arranges for a ship to come for you, and Organa is dead, so no other living soul knew where you were. I came to talk to you, nothing more sinister than that."

"Heartbroken Qui-Gon would be, to know you of all people fell to the dark side, thought more of you I did, thought you would follow your Padawan into the Dark I did _not_," Yoda said sourly, finally appearing out of the trees, his stick thumping into the ground.

"I did not follow Anakin, he followed me, as a good apprentice should, and Qui-Gon knew what I was, he knew the moment I started studying the true nature of the Sith, but the Force guided him, assured him that I was on the path that I was meant to follow, the path toward Balance. Do you really think he would have asked me to take Anakin as my apprentice if he didn't think I was doing what was needful? Even if you do not believe he always knew, I fought and defeated the creature that murdered him, I held my dying father in my arms; do you imagine he could not see what color my eyes were?"

Yoda wanted to deny his words, but he could feel that Sith or not, Obi-Wan was not shielding, and he was not lying; Qui-Gon Jinn had known his son had fallen to the dark, and he had shielded him from the eyes of the Jedi, no wonder Qui-Gon had always kept Obi-Wan so firmly in his shadow until he was powerful and skilled enough to shield himself.

"What then do you want from me?"

"Luke Skywalker must be trained as a Jedi; I would have laid the foundations for him as I was meant to on Tatooine, but his uncle would not permit any mention of Jedi around the child, let alone permit any training. Neither Anakin nor I can now guide him on the path he needs to tread, so the only options are for you to teach him, or to leave him stumbling around on his own, and hope he remains in the Light."

"You intend that the Jedi should continue to exist?"

"Yes."

"Understand, I do not," Yoda told him.

"That, Yoda, has long been the failing of the Jedi. I am returning to my ship, I'll leave you to think on young Luke. I will take off in two hours; I would very much appreciate you joining me."

Yoda watched him until he was out of sight, and then sank down on a tree stump with a sigh, not sure what to do, what to think. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Sith, had been for a long time apparently, yet he intended to reinstate the Jedi, even going so far as to come and ask Yoda to take on the task of helping to make it happen, in effect. He was Sith, but there was none of the creeping, cloying, pervasive sense of_ wrongness _about him. He quite obviously cared about what happened to the Skywalker boy, preferring to approach Yoda than to risk his future by trying to train him as a Jedi himself, or leaving him to his own devices, but _caring _was not a Sith trait.

"A conundrum, isn't he Yoda?"

Yoda looked up at the translucent blue figure leaning against a tree, arms folded.

"Know, did you, that your Padawan was Sith?"

"I knew that my _son _was learning the ways of the Dark side, yes. I do not believe he became fully Sith until Naboo, he could possibly have chosen either way up until that moment, but this _is _the path he was destined for. He and Anakin _are _the beginning of balance in the Force."

"The beginning only?"

"Nothing can balance when only one half is present, Yoda. Much as the old Jedi and Sith may have hated the notion, there are two sides to the Force, and both must be represented for balance to be brought about. They are the new incarnation of the Sith, now it is time to bring about the new incarnation of the Jedi. If you're going to go, to do as he asks of you, you must be prepared to accept that the way of the Jedi is going to be different, or nothing can truly change. To co-exist successfully, each side must understand the other."

"A question I must ask, Qui-Gon."

"You want to know about Xanatos, why his fall wounded me so terribly, and yet I could turn around and actively support Obi-Wan?"

"Yes."

"There is a difference between Dark, and evil, a huge difference, Anakin and Obi-Wan are Dark, but I doubt either of them has a truly malicious bone in their bodies. Xanatos, Palpatine, Maul, Dooku, Ventress and the others like them, they were _evil_, it was all about the power to them, they took pleasure in hurting others, they reveled in causing misery, for it added to their power, it was all about _them_, and no-one else."

"In the past tense you speak, for all of them?"

"They killed Palpatine; Anakin is even now weeding out those who will object to the change in management, as it were, for the Empire. When he leaves here, Obi-Wan will formally take control of the Empire, and will try to hammer out a cease fire, and then peace, with the rebellion. It isn't likely to be easy, but an end to this war is finally within reach, as long as both sides are willing to grasp that chance. You could help there too, if you decided to train the Skywalker boy, he, and his sister for that matter, are with the rebellion."

"But first, decide if I trust Obi-Wan I must."

"Yes."

Yoda nodded, and rested his chin atop his folded hands, resting on top of his stick, his forehead creasing in thought. Qui-Gon decided he had done all he could to convince the ancient Jedi master, and there was no need to stand there and watch him contemplating. Instead he vanished, appearing at the ship just as Obi-Wan reached it.

"He's thinking," Qui-Gon said, reaching out one insubstantial hand to cup Obi-Wan's cheek.

"You look tired, my child."

"I am, it doesn't matter, I'll be fine."

"You're missing Anakin," Qui-Gon said, a note of gentle teasing in his tone.

"Yes, yes I am, I never could fool you, could I?" he asked wryly.

"No, although some of your attempts to try were amusing in their own right. Coming back from a 'study session in the archives' with a blackening eye, and trying to pass it off as slipping over down there was fairly memorable, considering that by that time you were one of the most graceful and sure footed members of the order. I never did manage to find out what really happened with that one."

"Oh, that, um…we were in the lower levels, some creep decided to try it on with Siri, I decided to defend her."

"So he gave you a black eye?" Qui-Gon asked, suspecting not, a suspicion confirmed when Obi-Wan blushed scarlet, even after all this time.

"Ah, no, Siri punched me, called me a sexist pig," he admitted, making Qui-Gon laugh.

"Only you, my Obi-Wan, only you could get punched by the damsel while trying to rescue a damsel in distress," he snorted.

Obi-Wan smiled at his amusement, then sobered, looking back the way he had just come from.

"Will he come?"

"I don't know, I hope so."

"So do I," Obi-Wan sighed, climbing up the ramp into the ship.

tbc


	3. Chapter 3

Obi-Wan sat in the cockpit, meditating lightly as he waited for the two hours he had told Yoda that he would wait to pass. The currents of the Force that normally carried warnings, or hints of danger, to him were silent, which at least gave him a fair certainty that Yoda wasn't planning on killing him, whatever else he might decide to do about the request that Obi-Wan had made. He surfaced slowly as the alert he had set to monitor the time sounded, sighing as he silenced the alarm with a wave of his hand, before pushing out of his seat and heading aft to seal the hatch. He froze with his hand over the control, looking down at the small, hunched green figure standing at the foot of the ramp.

"Yoda; have you come to say a final farewell, or to accept my request?" he asked in a neutral tone.

Yoda sighed deeply, leaning heavily on his stick, and Obi-Wan realized that the old Jedi had still not quite come to a decision yet.

"Trust in the Force Yoda, what does it tell you?"

"That do as you ask, I should. Trust in the Force we did before, and misplaced it was, suspect Palpatine we did not, suspect you and your Padawan we did not," Yoda said, bitterness tainting his tone.

"So you've lost faith in the Force? Or is it yourself, and your own ability to follow the guidance the Force offers you that you doubt?"

"My ability to sense darkness, I doubt," Yoda answered sharply.

"As did Qui-Gon Jinn, after Xanatos, and you wouldn't let him drown in that doubt, you pushed him to trust in the Force and take another apprentice."

"And another Dark apprentice he got."

"Yes, yes he did, but as we have already established, he knew where my potential lay. Having encountered that tainted Darkness once, he was more sensitive to it, not less, and he trusted the voice of the Force that told him to trust in me. What about you, Yoda, you've had centuries more practice in feeling the flow of the Force than he did, will you practice what you preach, or will you practice hypocrisy instead?"

There was another long moment of silent contemplation, and then Yoda sighed once more, his ears drooping slightly.

"The boy I will teach," he agreed slowly.

"Thank you," Obi-Wan replied with genuine relief, stepping back to allow Yoda to stump up the ramp and into the passenger compartment of the ship.

"So, young Skywalker knows a new teacher you have found for him?" Yoda asked as Obi-Wan retracted the ramp and sealed the hatch.

Obi-Wan couldn't stop a slight flinch at the question; he and Anakin were still rather uncertain how Luke would react to the knowledge that neither of them was in fact dead.

"Young Skywalker thinks I am dead, killed by his father's killer. Anakin and I would prefer it remain that way, until we decide for ourselves how to tell him otherwise, and I would appreciate you respecting that preference."

Yoda harrumphed noncommittally and got himself into one of the passenger seats, strapping the crash webbing around himself without a word. Obi-Wan sighed, either he would respect their wish that Luke not know yet, or he wouldn't, there wasn't much he could really do about it. Right now, he needed to focus more of his attention on how he was going to get Yoda to Luke, and therefore the rebels, without getting himself into a situation that Anakin would end up having to rescue him from, or worse.

/x/

Anakin stood on the bridge of the Vengeance, his hands clasped behind his back under his cloak, his face expressionless as he stared out of the massive ports at the streaking flashes of hyperspace. He had dispensed with his Vader guise for the moment, the hated suit was in his quarters, but everyone on this ship had sworn their loyalty to the new Emperor, and his second in command, so it wasn't needed.

"My lord, we have intercepted a message from the Revenant, to the Iron Fist, they believe they have located the main body of the rebellion, and are calling the Iron Fist to assist them in an attack."

"_Kriff_, drop us out of hyperspace, order the Revenant to stand down immediately, and see if you can raise the Dark Moon, we must warn the Emperor that he is potentially heading straight into a battle zone."

Anakin clenched his fists under his cloak, keeping his face impassive by sheer force of will, he should be there, he should be with his Master to keep him safe. He wished he could convince Obi-Wan to stay safe and secure on Coruscant, with enough guards to keep an army from getting near him, but that just wasn't the way his Master's mind worked, staying safe while others risked themselves, but he should know by now that he always got in the worst trouble without Anakin there to watch his six.

The star lines melted into static points of white light as they dropped out of hyperspace, and a moment later, the comm. tech glanced up at the Captain, who stood a few feet from the tense Sith lord.

"No response from the Revenant, they're either ignoring us, or in hyperspace. We have picked up a message from the Dark Moon, but I can't get a live connection to them."

"We've just missed our window for the Dark Moon by a minute or two, I can feel that he has entered hyperspace," Anakin said quietly, grimly centring himself and reaching for the illusive channels of the Force that his Master read so easily, searching for any hint of danger.

"There is no immediate threat to the Dark Moon, they're _ahead _of the Revenant, barely, so they will not come out into a warzone, but there is still a vague feeling of _threat _hanging over our Emperor," he said, his tone tight with anxiety.

"We have their course, if we jump now, we should exit hyperspace less than two minutes after the Dark Moon," the pilot said looking up over his shoulder.

Anakin closed his eyes, blocking his personal fear for his Master and focussing on the gentle murmur of the Force.

"No, drop us a three second hyper-jump off their exit coordinates, there's still a _chance _that he can get in and out without our intervention. "

"Yes sir," the pilot acknowledged, and a moment later, they leapt back into hyperspace.

/x/

Obi-Wan dropped the Dark Moon out of hyperspace at the co-ordinates of the rebel fleet, and instantly felt a warning of impending danger.

"A threat there is," Yoda said, coming up from the rear section, indicating that he had felt the warning too.

"Not yet, but close. Call the Alliance fleet, get permission for me to dock and drop you off, I need to get back out of here fast," Obi-Wan said, gesturing to the co-pilot seat and twisting the holocam toward it.

He could feel that Anakin was somewhere nearby, which couldn't be a good thing, considering he had told him to remain on Coruscant, and he didn't _think _he would disobey for no good reason.

"Dark Moon courier ship, calling Alliance fleet, Alliance fleet respond please."

"Identify yourselves Dark Moon, and tell us how you got these co-ordinates," a voice came back over the channel, as sensors pinged a targeting lock on them.

"Yoda this is, sent I have been to young Skywalker a Jedi make," he said, activating the camera.

"Master Yoda?" the voice that came back this time was vaguely familiar to them both, and the screen flared to life to show a red-haired woman that they both definitely knew.

"Glad to see you alive I am, Senator Mothma."

"And I you, but how did you come to be here?" she asked.

"Visited I was by two faces from days long gone, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon bade me train Skywalker's son," he said, letting her come to her own conclusions, many remembered Qui-Gon's death at the re-emergence of the Sith, and he had no doubt that the princess had reported the death of General Kenobi on the Death Star.

The sound cut for a moment, and they saw Mothma conferring quietly a man Obi-Wan recognized as a much aged Dodonna, another he didn't know, and the princess, the Alliance leaders, all here in one place, with a large portion of the fleet, all it would take would be one strike and they would be gone, good job he was after peace with them, not destruction, really.

"You can dock with the Waverider," Mothma said a moment later when the channel was re-opened, the Mon Calamari ship on the screen ran its running lights to indicate where they could dock.

"My thanks, Lady Mothma," Yoda nodded, ending the transmission and looking over at Obi-Wan, who was already heading into the bay.

"I'm not going to be able to jump out again before whatever trouble is coming hits," Obi-Wan muttered, setting the auto-pilot for a moment, he slipped out of the chair, opened an overhead panel, and pulled out a bounty hunters mask and a dark cloak, pulling them on before retaking his seat, his whole bearing seeming to change in that instant.

Suddenly he seemed like every other bounty hunter Yoda had ever encountered, radiating arrogance and a hint of danger, a feeling that he was a predator to the core, his force presence was pulled in and shielded until it was barely discernable even to Yoda, young Skywalker would never pick it up.

"Disturbing, that is," Yoda muttered.

"It will be considerably more disturbing if I have to fight my way out, or if Anakin has to come and retrieve me, if they press for my name, I am bounty hunter Corrin Quinn," he said in a clipped tone that sounded nothing like his own, and Yoda recognized in surprise a very old undercover name once used by Qui-Gon Jinn, long before he had apprenticed Obi-Wan.

"Very well," Yoda nodded.

The ship set down smoothly on the deck of the Waverider's landing bay, landing between the rows of x and y wings that populated the space, many of them undergoing repairs or maintenance of some kind. Obi-Wan hoped that the snub fighter capacity of the other fleet ships was in better condition that this lot, because he was feeling that a fight was now inevitable.

Yoda hopped down from the co-pilot chair, looking back as 'Corrin' followed him to the hatch, keying it open to reveal Mothma and the others waiting.

"Master Yoda," Mothma greeted him with a genuinely pleased smile.

"Lady Mothma," he greeted, stumping down the ramp.

"Your pilot is not joining you?"

"I've done the job I was hired to do lady, I ain't signing up for no war," he snipped, stepping back and shutting the hatch the moment Yoda was off the ramp.

"Let him leave," Mothma said to the deck officer as the courier's engines fired up again.

"We should at least make him stay until we're ready to jump out, if he tells the Empire where we are, we're sitting ducks," Leia protested.

"We can't force him to stay princess, that would make us no better than the Empire.

Yoda watched the Dark Moon rise from the deck again, and slipped back out into the cold of space.

"Something's coming, something dangerous," a slender blond boy said, his eyes vague, and even without the Force that swirled around him, Yoda would have recognized him as Anakin's child.

"Don't get twitchy Luke," another man warned, confirming it. Yoda blinked, recognizing the Wookiee that towered behind this man's shoulder.

"Correct, the boy is, danger is upon us," Yoda confirmed, nodding a greeting to Chewbacca.

"Great, at least the old man was easy to understand, even if he did talk a load of hocus pocus," the man snorted, ducking around Chewbacca and stomping up the ramp of a battered looking ship.

"Don't mind him Master Yoda, he doesn't really believe in the Force. My father, Bail Organa, told me a lot about you. I'm Leia Organa, you already know Mon Mothma, this is General Dodonna, and Carlist Riekeen, Luke Skywalker and this is Chewbacca, first mate to that ill mannered nerf herder."

"Pleased I am to meet you all, but for now, you must prepare to fight, or to run, short is time."

"Tell the fleet to raise shields, prepare emergency jumps to hyperspace, have the fighters prepped for launch," Mon Mothma said decisively, trusting Yoda's warning, even if she hadn't trusted Luke's.

Luke ran for one of the x-wings jumping up into the cockpit, and starting pre-flight checks as R2-D2 was loaded up.

"Let's get to the bridge," Dodonna said.

Yoda followed behind them, standing out of the way on the bridge, watching the view screen as they prepared to jump from their current location, he could see the Dark Moon, almost far enough away from them to jump to hyperspace, but in the next instant, the huge, menacing form of an Imperial destroyer dropped out of hyperspace almost on top of them.

/x/

Obi-Wan swore viciously as the destroyer appeared directly in his path, changing course rather more rapidly than the courier had been designed for, and hearing the hull groan in complaint.

"I hate flying," he muttered through gritted teeth, steering away from both the destroyer, and the rebel fleet before slamming his hand down on the shielding button an instant before the destroyer took a pot-shot at him.

"Come on Anakin, I know you're watching," he growled, dodging a second shot, his shields were somewhat better than this class of courier usually carried, but not enough to stand up to a pounding by a destroyer. If Anakin didn't show up quickly, he was going to have to take his chances with the rebels; he couldn't jump while he was powering his shields.

/x/

"Sir, Revenant is launching TIE fighters; they're also taking pot-shots at that courier ship. Should we tell the pilot to get behind our defensive positioning?" Waverider's tactical officer asked, but whatever Dodonna's answer would have been, he didn't get to give it, the tactical officer jumped as if electrified.

"Another Imperial ship, coming in over the top of us. Stars help us, it's the Vengeance, its Vader's ship," he squeaked in fear.

"Settle down, you're of no use if you panic, tell anyone who can jump to jump now. Is Vengeance launching fighters?" Dodonna demanded.

"Yes, but…"

"But what?"

"They're targeting Revenant's TIEs, Vengeance is also signalling them to stand down or face destruction, by the command of the new Imperial Emperor."

"General, we've had a message burst from the Vengeance, Lord Vader instructs us to get our fleet the hell out of here, that this is between them and the traitors on the Revenant," another officer reported, sounding confused.

"Tell all ships to pull back, and jump as soon as they can, micro jumps until we can be sure we're not being followed by either Imp ship," Dodonna ordered.

"What about the courier ship?" Leia asked.

"He jumped out just after the Vengeance came in," the tactical officer told her.

"Good, get us out of here."

/x/

Obi-Wan sat on the edge of sensor range, watching the rebel fleet vanish into hyperspace in dribs and drabs as Anakin pounded the hell out of the Revenant. It would be a shame to destroy a good ship, but if a lesson was required for other hold-outs, then that was the way it would be. He did notice a large number of the TIE fighters breaking engagement, and wondered if Vengeance's clone troopers were communicating with their brethren from the Revenant, if so, there was a possibility the clones could take the ship with0ut needing to destroy it.

"Dark Moon to Vengeance, are the clone troopers in communication with the Revenant's troopers? If so, authorize them to take the ship, tell them to kill anyone who refuses to surrender to them."

In less than an hour, it was over, the Revenant had fallen to the clone troopers, and Anakin was in the process of organizing a skeleton command crew from the Vengeance to take command of the ship when the Dark Moon landed in the Vengeance's bay.

"Master, you're safe," Anakin breathed, resisting the urge to pull him into his arms and not let go, as they were surrounded by troopers and the crew who would be headed to the Revenant.

"Yes, it was a close run thing, but I know you would have come to the rescue if I was in real trouble, just like old times," he said with a wry smirk.

"Always. You were successful then?"

"Yes, Yoda is going to train Luke. Did we lose many?"

"A dozen of our TIE pilots, about double that from the Revenant before Commander Clipper managed to make them stand down, and the entire command structure of the Revenant, but the crew was happy enough to stand down and surrender."

"How many other ships refused to stand down?"

"Six, one, the Iron Fist, we already managed to subdue, we're in the process of trying to track the others."

"Right, well they've had their chance, track them, give them one last chance to stand down, and then have the clones take the ships, or as a last resort, destroy them, we don't want to lose the ships or the clones, but I don't care about the traitorous command crews. We need the fleet under control before we contact the Alliance with the cease-fire offer."

"Understood, my Emperor."

"Good, then I will leave you to your hunting; the Revenant can take me back to Coruscant before they head to join the rest of the fleet."

"As you command. Commander Clipper, you will accompany the Emperor, and assure his safety personally."

"Yes, my Lord," Clipper said, moving to Obi-Wan's side as Obi-Wan himself rolled his eyes at Anakin's over protectiveness.

"See you when you get back to Coruscant, Anakin, be careful."

"You too."

Anakin watched as his Master once more boarded the Dark Moon, taking Commander Clipper with him. He was determined to bring the other traitors to heel quickly, and get back to his Master's side, where he belonged.

TBC…


	4. Chapter 4

Obi-Wan sat curled up on the throne, a datapad lying ignored in his lap as he stared vaguely out of the massive floor to ceiling windows into the darkening Coruscant sky. He was bored, and more than a little lonely, he rather wished that he was out in space with Anakin, still hunting the one remaining ship that had refused the orders of the new Emperor to stand down. The datapad chimed softly, and he glanced down with a small frown, picking it up, scanning the data quickly.

"Hmm," he mused softly, it was a report from one of the spies they still had inside the rebellion, there had been a strike against a rebel base by the Shining Sword, the missing ship, and he couldn't quite tell if the captain of the ship was getting desperate, supplies would be getting low and they couldn't exactly put into an Imperial resupply station, or if he was trying to lay a trap for the Vengeance, he couldn't have missed that he was being hunted down, and in battle, the two ships would be well matched, if Captain Torell could engineer himself an advantage in the confrontation, he could manage a lucky strike and destroy the Vengeance before even Anakin could do anything about it.

"Communications, the report you just sent me regarding the attack by the Shining Sword, has it been relayed to the Vengeance?" he asked, touching a control inset in the arm of the throne.

"No, my Emperor, not yet, communication window with the Vengeance is not for another nineteen minutes."

"Very well, when you send the report, inform them that I wish to speak with Lord Skywalker before they act on the information."

"Yes, my Emperor."

Obi-Wan took his finger off the button, cutting the connection, and looked back down at the pad, frowning slightly, before dismissing it, and dropping the pad back in his lap, there was no point worrying about it until he spoke to Anakin, and could get a feeling of if there was any danger to him or not, at the moment, all he had was vague bad feelings, and they could mean anything, he was getting nothing clear at all.

He would be glad when this last ship was dealt with, one way or the other, and they could move on with the next stage, dealing with making peace with the rebels, he would have Anakin back at his side for that, because even though they had only been reunited for a very short time, he missed him as much as he had those first few awful months of exile on Tatooine, he didn't want to be apart from him again, damn it. He settled back into the confines of the throne once more, shutting his eyes and trying to meditate as he waited to hear from Anakin.

/x/

The leaders of the rebel alliance, plus Yoda, who had come at Mon Mothma's request, sat around the circular table in the war room aboard the Freedom's Dream, studying the report on the table in front of them.

"It's the first indication of Imperial aggression in _weeks_, and against such a strategically unimportant target, I don't understand it. They could have done so much more damage in one strike the day Master Yoda arrived, Vader was there, he could have wiped us out, and he did nothing but tell us to leave, and now this," Leia said, frustration coloring her tone as she tried and failed to figure out the motivations.

"That isn't the only odd encounter recently," Dodonna said quietly, steepling his forefingers in front of his mouth.

"What do you mean?" Mothma asked.

"Did you know that until this attack, the _only _Imp ship that anyone had reported seeing was the Vengeance?"

"No, that hadn't been passed on to us," Mothma said with a hint of disapproval in her voice.

"From what we could tell, they seemed to be hunting something, and it wasn't us. There were several encounters where our ships were leaving one planet or another, and were completely ignored by Vader, not to mention this report I got in an hour or so ago, only two days ago, two of our corvettes scouting for new locations dropped out of hyperspace practically on top of the Vengeance while she was sitting just off the jump point, and they clipped each other scrabbling to avoid her, the only reaction they got; a bored sounding officer asking if they required assistance with repairs."

"What did they do?" Leia asked curiously.

"Thanked them politely, and told them they could manage," he snorted.

"So what in the name of the Force is the Vengeance doing, if she isn't hunting us?" Mothma asked in frustration.

"Looking she is for them," Yoda said, tapping the report on the attack against the base with his stick.

"A schism in the Imp fleet?" Leia mused.

"Only interested in the ship attacking were they, the day I arrived. Know we do, that new Emperor there is, said that Vader did."

"But we don't know if Palpatine is dead, or just deposed, do we?" Reikeen demanded.

"Hard it is to confirm information at times like this," Yoda pointed out dryly.

"Well, that could explain why no-one seems to have seen Palpatine recently, and why there might be a spilt in the fleet, if there is a power struggle going on. This might be a good time to move against them," Dodonna mused.

"No, they're ignoring us at the moment, the rest of the fleet no-where in sight while they're hunting down whatever ships they're hunting, whatever the reason. If we suddenly turn around and attack them now, then not only would we be no better than the Empire, but we would likely find the rest of the fleet breathing down our necks. We need to get more spies out there, we have to find out what's going on, try to find out who the new Emperor is, and if there is some kind of power struggle going on," Mothma said firmly.

"I'll get to work on it, it won't be easy getting anyone new onto Coruscant through," Reikeen sighed.

"Maybe we don't need to get anyone new in, maybe we need to try to find out if any of my father's sources are still in place, they weren't all Alderaanian, so they wouldn't all have necessarily come under suspicion, we just need to figure out how to contact them," Leia said, her heart twisting painfully at the thought of the lost planet, her family and friends all gone.

"Do you have any of the contact frequencies?"

"I don't, but he used to use R2-D2 to route the communications, so there may be something in his databanks."

"Well, we'll tell commander Skywalker to send him to the labs then, and let the techs see what they can do."

"Probably better to see what Luke can get out of him, R2 is very independent, he might wipe his databanks rather than let someone take information he isn't willing to give," Leia sighed.

"All right, so what are we going to do about this apparently rogue Imp ship?" Dodonna asked.

"Stay out of their way, tell all bases in the sectors around the one that was attacked to fall back to their next locations, and keep their heads down," Mothma said firmly.

"You want them to just…run?" he asked.

"We have nothing in that sector capable of being more than an annoyance to a ship like that, and I dare say that whatever spies the Empire has in our ranks have already reported where the Shining Sword was last seen, so let Vader deal with it," she shrugged pragmatically, they could use this apparent respite to start calling in members of the alliance who had been forced to scatter in recent months, start consolidating their numbers so they would be ready to face whatever was coming.

/x/

Anakin stood on the holo-projector in his quarters, waiting patiently for the plates to light up with the return signal. Finally an image of Obi-Wan appeared, shimmering faintly against the backdrop of the dark wall.

"Master," he greeted.

"You have the report, about the Shining Sword's latest actions, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked without preamble.

"Yes, we have a course laid in to take us to where the attack happened, we'll see if we can pick up their trail from there."

"Stand down."

"What? But…Master…"

"Something isn't sitting right about this Anakin, I don't like it at all. Hold your position right there, stay on alert, I'm sending the Dominator out to join you."

"I'm not sensing any danger," he said tentatively, not wanting to annoy Obi-Wan, but not wanting to sit around here while the trail possibly went cold again either.

"Neither am I, not directly, but something…the last time I felt this unsettled by something so vague was Naboo Anakin," Obi-Wan said, looking away from the pickups, and Anakin winced.

Naboo, not a great memory for either of them, everything had started there, all of Palpatine's manoeuvrings, everything he had planned had stemmed from that time, that place, but it had cost Obi-Wan a very high price personally too, his world had been torn apart there, and he had never felt anything than an elusive warning that he had never managed to pin down.

"We'll hold here to wait for the Dominator," he said quietly.

"Thank you, I know you can probably handle anything they throw at you Anakin, but…"

"I know Master, we'll be right here."

Obi-Wan nodded and stepped away from the projector, breaking the connection with the Vengeance, and stood, tapping his fingers lightly on the hilt of his lightsaber for a long moment, staring thoughtfully at the windows without seeing the view beyond them.

"Emperor, the Dominator has entered the system, and the Dark Moon is fuelled an on the pad," Clipper said, entering the throne room and bowing respectfully.

"Good, let's go," he said firmly, pulling his hood up and striding from the room, his black cloak swirling behind him and the clone trooper following on his heels.

They boarded the courier, and Obi-Wan sent Clipper back to the passenger compartment to sit with the other three troopers who were accompanying them, Clipper having decided that the Emperor, Force or not, needed a personal guard. Obi-Wan himself headed up to the cockpit, taking the controls and sending the Dark Moon climbing into the sky, heading to rendezvous with the Dominator. Instinct had warned him not to tell Anakin that he was coming along with the Dominator, the younger man would go after the Shining Sword despite his orders, in an effort to keep Obi-Wan from harm, and if there was a threat that he couldn't detect, he wasn't losing Anakin the way he had lost Qui-Gon.

/x/

Luke looked up from where he was trying to persuade R2 to cough up Bail Organa's communication codes as Han came and plunked down in the seat beside him.

"What's up?" Luke asked.

"Her highnessness is being a pain in the exhaust port again. What are you up to?"

"Leia asked me to try to convince R2 to give up the comm. codes that her father used to contact his spies on Coruscant, they're hoping that some of them might still be in place."

"Oh, any luck?"

"Not so far, I did find a cache of holopics though, I thought I might ask Master Yoda about them, I think one of the people in the pictures might be Ben, another could well be my father, there are other people too, I…it would be nice to know more about my father than the lies Owen and Beru told me, or 'oh, he was a Jedi, he was killed by Darth Vader'," Luke said sourly.

"And you think the green guy will tell you about him?"

"Worth asking," he shrugged, picking up the padd he had downloaded the cached pictures to and handing it to Han.

The first picture on the padd was a young man with reddish hair in a severe haircut and a blank expression that didn't manage to hide the unhappiness in his eyes, he was sitting on a bench in some kind of garden, a little blond boy with the same shorn haircut sitting beside him, both staring off into the distance, neither of them apparently aware that the picture was being taken. Flicking through the images rapidly, Han stopped on one that made him raise an eyebrow.

"This girl looks a bit like her highnessness," he commented.

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Luke said distractedly, he had found another hidden cache, with luck, this was what he was looking for.

"Come on R2, don't be stubborn, we need the codes," he muttered, delicately shifting the probes he was using.

"Where's Goldenrod, can't he convince him to give them up?" Han asked.

"I sent Threepio for an oil-bath, they just started bickering when he tried to help, and R2 wouldn't tell me anything," Luke sighed, shaking his head.

"You know kid, your droids are weird, they act more like an old married couple than most old married couples I've ever met," he snorted.

Luke contemplated commenting that they actually acted more like Han and Leia than anything else, but decided against it at the last minute, the Corellian was already in a snit, he didn't want to make it worse.

There was an electronic sigh, and R2 finally released the information in the cache, Luke quickly plugged in another padd as comm. codes scrolled rapidly across the screen, and he patted the top of the droid's dome lightly.

"Thanks R2," he said brightly.

/x/

Anakin was in the mess with a mug of kaff and some toast when the bridge signalled that the Dominator was coming out of hyperspace, his head snapped around in the direction of the outer hull when he sensed his Master's presence aboard the other ship, bright and clear, he must have been shielding until they reverted to normal space, for Anakin to have missed that he was growing closer.

/_Good morning, Master,_/ he sent dryly along their bond, he felt a flare of amused affection from the older man, but his reply came not from the bond, but with the chirp of his comm. and a request to meet a ship from the Dominator in the docking bay.

Draining his kaff, he rose and strode out of the room, heading for the docking bay. The Dark Moon was settling to the deck as he entered, the engines cut and the ramp extended, and Anakin was surprised that the first ones off were four white armoured troopers, who stood two to a side at the base of the ramp, he was surprised Obi-Wan had consented to a guard. He went down on one knee automatically as the hooded, cloaked figure moved smoothly down the ramp, and he felt familiar fingers on the top of his head as the dark form came to a halt in front of him.

"Master, it is an honour to see you here,"/_and something of a surprise too,_/ he added the last to the formal greeting along the bond.

"I thought it best if we were both here for this,"/_not to mention if I had told you I was coming, you would have taken off alone in an effort to protect me, and I think this is something we need to deal with together, besides, I was missing you,_/ he replied in the same manner, tugging lightly to bring him to his feet.

/_I've missed you too,_/ Anakin admitted.

"Come, let's get to work on locating and neutralizing the Shining Sword, the sooner that is done, the better," Obi-Wan said, gesturing Anakin to lead the way from the bay, and resisting the urge to roll his eyes as Clipper and his team fell in behind them.


	5. Chapter 5

SO sorry for keeping y'all waiting so long, not really writing much of anything since the summer. Hopefully nice new computer will make muse more co-operative.

/x/x/

Obi-Wan stirred awake, feeling Anakin wrapped around him like a serpent, pinning him securely between the bigger man's body and the mattress, and a tiny frown creased his brow, it wasn't unusual for Anakin to still be holding him after they had slept, but this tightly possessive, protective grip didn't generally indicate anything good. He managed to free one arm enough to dig an elbow into his lover's ribs as he spoke as sharply as he could.

"Anakin," he snapped, feeling the younger man startle awake instantly, but instead of loosening his grip, Anakin tightened it fractionally, holding him even tighter.

"Tell me," Obi-Wan said simply.

"You, alone, snow, nothing but snow and ice, so red with your blood. You, bleeding, dying, cold and alone," Anakin murmured into the bare skin of Obi-Wan's shoulder.

Obi-Wan felt an involuntary shiver slice though him at Anakin's descriptive words, the feelings behind them, and he knew that whatever he had seen, it had been a true vision, not a nightmare, and there was no point in trying to view it through Anakin's memories, for some reason, despite his strong ability in precognition, he could never see visions that directly affected his own well being, even if they were someone else's visions, he suspected that was the reason he had had no real warning that he was going to lose his father, because it had triggered a major shift in his own life on too many levels. He also knew that Anakin's visions tended to the short term, days or weeks, not months, so what he had seen could not be far off.

Sighing, he pushed against Anakin's tight grip enough to make him loosen it a little, and then turned over to face him, ignoring the bruises he could feel developing from Anakin's artificial hand, and stroked through his gradually lengthening curls lightly.

"Wherever, whenever, it is that you have seen, it is unlikely that I will truly be alone, I seldom am now, and you are always but a thought away. Once we have dealt with our traitors, I will be returning to Coruscant, no snow there, so whatever is going to happen, it will be soon, and I _know _you will come to my rescue, as you have always done," he said, offering the best reassurance that he could. He wasn't going to dismiss Anakin's concerns, tell him that nothing was going to happen, he had learned that lesson.

"Damn straight I'll always come rescue you, but I would prefer not to need to, I don't like seeing you injured," he growled.

"I don't invite trouble Anakin, it finds me of its own accord," he pointed out.

Anakin snorted, his grip on the older man finally relaxing enough that he could pull away if he wanted to, but Obi-Wan was content to stay where he was for the moment, there was nothing pressing to demand their presence right now.

/x/

Luke surfaced from his meditation, aware that Yoda was watching him closely.

"Distracted you are, young Skywalker, not on what you are doing is your mind," Yoda chided.

"No, I'm sorry. I…I found something yesterday when I was probing Artoo's databanks, and I've been trying to pluck up the courage to ask you about it, them."

"So fearsome am I, that you feared to ask?" Yoda asked, faintly amused.

"No, it isn't that, not exactly," Luke sighed, pulling the data-pad out from where he had left it.

"Artoo had these pictures stored in a hidden cache, I was hoping you could maybe tell me something about some of the people, maybe…maybe tell me if one of them is my father," he said hesitantly.

"Show me the pictures you may, tell you what I can, I will," he said.

Luke activated the pad, bringing up the first picture, and turning it so that the old Jedi could see it, the two sad figures sitting in a beautiful garden.

"Is this one Ben?" Luke asked, pointing to the older figure.

"Obi-Wan it is, a day or two I think after a Knight he became, Anakin Skywalker the child is, newly claimed as Padawan to Obi-Wan."

"They don't seem very happy," Luke said, pleased by the confirmation that the boy sitting with Obi-Wan was his father, even if it was a bit odd that the only confirmed image he had of him so far was of a child.

"Happy they were not, grieving they were, wanted a Padawan Obi-Wan did not, wanted Obi-Wan for a Master, Skywalker did not. For the path they were on, neither was ready."

"Then why…?"

"Found young Skywalker was by Obi-Wan's Master, intended he did to take Anakin Skywalker as Padawan, much friction it caused, blame for this the Jedi Council must hold, as well as Qui-Gon's stubbornness. Killed Qui-Gon was, died he did in Obi-Wan's arms, a promise he extracted before he did that Skywalker Obi-Wan would teach."

"It surprises me that he didn't want to teach my father, I kind of got the feeling of a lot of sadness when he told me that my father was killed by Darth Vader."

"Close, they became," Yoda said simply, not mentioning his suspicion that they had become considerably closer than the rules of the Jedi order permitted, he had never had proof after all, and honouring, for the moment, Obi-Wan's request that he not tell Luke that neither Kenobi nor Anakin Skywalker were dead.

Luke nodded and clicked to the next picture, a big man with long hair and a beard, towering over Obi-Wan, one arm slung around his shoulder, against a backdrop that looked suspiciously like Tatooine to Luke.

"Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan's Master," Yoda identified.

"His father," another voice corrected, making Luke jump out of his skin as a shimmering blue figure appeared, unchanged from his appearance in the picture, apart from the glowing and see through thing of course. The newcomer looked at the picture and smiled faintly, sadly.

"That was immediately after we arrived on Tatooine, before everything was thrown into chaos, before I very nearly destroyed my child's trust in me," he said, insubstantial fingers ghosting over the smaller figure in the picture. He knew he still owed Obi-Wan an apology for what he had done after finding Anakin, even if it had all worked out for the best in the end.

"Why you are here, Qui-Gon?" Yoda asked, frowning.

"I wanted to meet your new student Master. I could have sworn you said 'never again' after you managed to get rid of me," he teased.

"Impudent Padawan, someone else you should be haunting, is there not?"

"He's busy, and soon to become busier. He's in enough danger right now without me distracting him at a bad moment."

"Danger?" Yoda queried, his ears rising in curiosity.

"A few days away yet, and his companion has warned him," Qui-Gon said, shooting Yoda a dark look.

Accepting the implied rebuke from Qui-Gon, Yoda gestured mildly in the direction of his new student.

"Young Skywalker a collection of pictures he found, perhaps help identify some of the occupants you can."

"Glad to," Qui-Gon agreed.

"Um, will Ben…Obi-Wan…be able to visit the way you are?" Luke asked hopefully, looking at the Force spirit in fascination.

"I dare say you will see him again, when the time is right," Qui-Gon said smoothly.

"I hope so, I didn't really get a chance to know him, but I liked him," Luke sighed.

Yoda refrained from commenting that he had known Obi-Wan for years, and never really known him, and turned his attention back to the pictures his new apprentice had found.

/x/

Anakin and Obi-Wan were in one of the briefing rooms, going through the latest reports and trying to pick up the latest position of the Shining Sword when the door-chime sounded. Obi-Wan sighed at the interruption and nodded to Anakin to hit the unlock command for the door. Clipper stepped in from his post on guard outside the door when it opened.

"Your Majesty, Lord Skywalker, Captain Vernet is here with an update," he reported.

"Thank you Clipper, let him in," Obi-Wan said without looking up.

The grey uniformed man stepped in smartly as Clipper left, and snapped to attention as the doors slid shut once more.

"Report Captain," Anakin said impatiently.

"There has been another attack against a rebel supply convoy, what survivors there were have been sending distress messages to the rebel fleet, although I doubt they are strong enough for them to pick up in time to help them. The convoy was headed to a rebel base on Hoth, they think the Shining Sword is going to head there next, but they don't have the range to warn them."

"Co-ordinate with the Dominator, I want them to head directly to Hoth, to intercept the Shining Sword if she turns up there, Vengeance will detour only long enough to try to pick up survivors from the attack, I want to talk to them," Obi-Wan ordered Anakin, who nodded sharply and rose from his seat, although not without a worried look at his Master; Hoth, planet of snow and ice. Obi-Wan gave him a wry look, but waved him away without comment, there wasn't much to say really, they had known that Anakin's vision would be close.

It was a relatively short jump to where the convoy had been attacked, and Obi-Wan thought they could probably offset much of the time difference between the Dominator's arrival time at Hoth and their own, by making a slightly riskier hyperspace jump, he didn't want to leave them facing the Shining Sword alone for too long, the rogue ship had enough of a lead on them to get well positioned to defend against an attack, although hopefully they would only be expecting one ship, as that was all that had been hunting them all along.

He stood in the gallery above the landing deck, watching as a squad of TIE fighters guided the two badly damaged X-wings and the single surviving cargo ship out of the debris field that was all that was left of the convoy into the bay. The crews got out under the watchful eyes of two squads of storm troopers, the rebel pilots automatically knelt on the deck and put their hands behind their heads, well away from their weapons, and they were efficiently but gently disarmed before Anakin strode out onto the deck, casting a sharp eye over them, feeling for any hint of threat, but there was none, they felt beaten, dispirited, afraid that they had failed their comrades on Hoth, leaving them vulnerable to the coming attack.

"Take them to medical and have any injuries attended to, then bring them to the briefing room on deck six. Deck crew, get all ships secured for jump, we need to get moving to reach Hoth close behind the Dominator," Anakin ordered, sweeping out again, he could now feel curiosity mixed with a thread of panic behind him, but he ignored it for now, he had to get them underway.

The jump to hyperspace had been made by the time their 'guests' were escorted to the briefing room by their guards and the medic who would be giving the medical department's report on them. Obi-Wan was waiting hooded and relaxed at the head of the table, Anakin to his right; he didn't want them to be able to describe him when they were returned to their compatriots, not yet anyway, and he certainly didn't want to keep them prisoner, that would _not _convince the alliance leaders that they genuinely wanted peace.

"Sit down," Anakin said quietly, waving the rescued rebels to seats at the far end of the table.

"Why aren't we in holding cells? You can't seriously think we will be more amenable to betraying our comrades if you treat us well than if you torture us," the man obviously elected as their spokesperson said, as they remained where they stood.

"We are not asking you to betray anyone, you are here to help them. We already know that your convoy was headed to Hoth when it was attacked, we are not interested in capturing any of your bases, we want the ship that attacked you, now please, sit," Obi-Wan spoke from the shadows of his hood, his voice low, smooth, and completely non-descript.

There was another moment of hesitation, then the five rebels sat down, and all but two of the guards left the room.

"Medical report?" Anakin asked as Obi-Wan silently told him to take over.

"Bumps, bruises and a number of electrical burns from shorting systems, but nothing life threatening. All five would be considered fit for duty if they were not guests here," he said.

"Good, dismissed," Anakin nodded.

The medic left, and Anakin turned his attention to the men at the other end of the table.

"When you were attacked, was the Shining Sword alone?" he asked bluntly.

"Yes," the spokesperson said slowly.

"What were the defensive capabilities of your convoy?"

The spokesman narrowed his eyes and remained silent, making Anakin bite back a growl of annoyance.

"I need to know what sort of resistance the Shining Sword is still capable of offering, what they have, what they took from you, what they may be able to take from Hoth if they get there too far ahead of us."

"We were carrying food and cold weather gear, not armaments, we had an escort of six X-wings," one of the cargo hauler's crew said.

"The other four X-wings, were they destroyed or taken?"

"One was destroyed, three were taken."

"Did they primarily attack with TIE fighters or ship board armaments?"

"Fighters, I don't think the ship fired a single shot."

"They know the Vengeance is close on their trail, they are trying to keep everything they can, even as they try to gather more, to fight us," Obi-Wan said softly.

"What about on Hoth?" Anakin asked.

"If they can take the base, they will have access to the turbo-lasers, and more X-wings," the X-wing pilot replied reluctantly.

"It will be a ground battle then," Obi-Wan murmured, earning a quick glance from Anakin.

_/You don't intend fighting do you Master?/ _he sent worriedly.

_/Intend, no, but given your vision, I think that I may end up doing so regardless. Focus on them for the moment, we have nearly two days until we reach Hoth./_

"What do you intend to do with us?" the second pilot asked quietly.

"Nothing, return you to your comrades," Anakin responded with a light shrug.

"Really? Will you allow us to repair our ships and assist our comrades if there is a battle when we get to Hoth?" the first challenged.

"You may work on your ships under the supervision of the deck crews, if you complete repairs to their satisfaction, you may do as you will," Obi-Wan said, rising and sweeping from the room in a swirl of dark fabric from his cloak.

Anakin watched him go before returning his attention to the five men across the table from him, and their guards.

"Take them back down to the landing deck, inform the deck crew that they have been given leave to repair their ships under supervision, remain with them at all times," he said to the guards, then he looked back to their guests.

"Quarters will be assigned, you will be escorted to either your quarters or the mess hall any time that you are not working on your vessels."

"Understood," the spokesman nodded, rising as Anakin gestured to the guards, and they all left the room.

Anakin sat for a long moment, allowing the threads of the future to swirl around him, but he still couldn't see anything beyond the lingering after-image of his beloved dying on the ice. Rising he strode out of the room, heading for where he sensed Obi-Wan's presence in the officer's viewing lounge.

"What did you see?" he asked quietly the moment he entered the room.

"Dominator, she's too far ahead of us," he said softly.

"Will she be destroyed?" Anakin asked with a small frown, Dominator was a good ship, a good crew, he trusted them with Obi-wan.

"I'm not certain, there is a fine tipping point in our arrival between outright destruction, and badly damaged."

"I'll go to the bridge and see if we can tighten up the jump any more, get there a little faster."

Obi-Wan nodded silently, turning back to the viewport to stare out into the flashing streaks of hyperspace.

tbc


	6. Chapter 6

Luke looked up as Han came into the room where he was going through saber forms under Yoda's watchful eye.

"Hiding from Leia again?" Luke asked with a faint smile, seeing the disgruntled look on the smuggler's face.

Yoda tapped his stick firmly on the deck, and Luke took the hint, resuming the forms as he waited for Han to answer.

"No, came to let you know I'll be gone for a while, her highness-ness wants me to transport some medical supplies to Hoth, they didn't arrive in time to go with the convoy," Han sighed.

Yoda's ears pricked up slightly, a nudge from the Force prompting him to turn to Han.

"With you Skywalker and I will go," he said.

"Why?" Han and Luke asked as one.

"Danger there is on Hoth, needed we will be."

"Danger?"

"Yes, much danger."

"The kind of danger we should be warning someone about?" Luke asked.

Yoda hesitated, he couldn't tell exactly what was going to happen on that ball of ice, but he knew it had to be big.

"Warn Mon Mothma we should," he finally conceded.

"Well, you'd better do it quick if you want to come with me, I'm scheduled to leave in less than an hour, before the fleet jumps again."

"Wait with Captain Solo you will, young Skywalker, join you I will soon."

"You don't really believe there is going to be danger on Hoth do you?" Han asked as they moved through the corridors, R2-D2 trundling along behind Luke. Han rolled his eyes at the distinctive sound of Threepio joining their merry band.

"Yes, if Yoda says so, I do."

"You put too much faith in that mystical mumbo jumbo Luke," Han sighed.

"Maybe, maybe not, maybe you should try a little faith yourself Han," Luke said quietly.

"Don't hold your breath kid," Han snorted, he wanted to point out that the mumbo jumbo hadn't done old Kenobi any good on the Death Star, that it hadn't helped him against Vader, but he knew the old man's death was still a sore point for Luke.

/x/

Anakin stood at the front of the bridge, watching hyperspace streak by as they pushed everything to get them to Hoth in time to help the Dominator. He could feel the vagueness in his bond that indicated that Obi-Wan was dropped deep into the Force, trying to follow all of the threads of possibility, to find the path that would offer the least bloodshed.

_/Five minutes to reversion,/ _he sent into the bond. There was a pause and then he felt his Master's awareness start to filter back in.

The older man joined him just before they dropped out of hyperspace, and they stood shoulder to shoulder as the stars stopped streaking by, and the frigid white ball of Hoth appeared before them.

There were a few moments of quiet, and the alarms started sounding all over the command deck.

"We're reading turbo laser fire on the far side of the planet, there are indications that Shining Sword has also launched ground attack," one of the officers reported.

"Anakin, aid the Dominator, I'm taking a ground force," Obi-Wan said softly.

"Master…" Anakin started in a tone of protest, vividly recalling his vision.

"We don't have a choice Anakin, Luke and Yoda are down there. Take the Shining Sword or destroy her, I suspect most of her clone troops are on the ground or in the TIEs right now anyway."

"Be careful," he whispered.

"I do try Anakin," he pointed out with a wry smile, keeping his voice too low for the crew to hear.

"I know you do, but you're not always terribly good at it," he said with a wry, sad smile.

"Don't get killed Master, please."

Obi-Wan left the command deck, and Anakin started issuing orders, getting the ground forces and fighters assembled in the launch bays, and getting the Vengeance into position to aid their sister ship against the Shining Sword.

Obi-Wan swept into the docking bay, Clipper and his three fellow guards at his back, all of them wearing cold weather trooper armour, like all the other rapidly assembling troops, although Obi-Wan was wearing a protective face mask to protect his lungs from the frigid air, not a helmet, and all of them were marked with a red band on their arms, so that they would know who they were fighting once they got into the fray.

He noticed that their rebel 'guests' were standing by their ships, still under guard, watching everything that was going on warily.

"Prepare to launch if you're launching, we're moving out, the ground assault on Hoth has already started," he said bluntly, seeing them scramble to do just that as he strode up the ramp of the troop transport he would be going down on.

"Command deck, we are ready to launch," he said into the comm. panel.

"Clear to launch, TIE fighters will cover your descent," Anakin's voice came back, Obi-Wan nodded once at the pilot, and they lifted from the deck.

/x/

Yoda looked up sharply toward the icy ceiling in the command room where the rebel commander was trying to direct the defence of the base, sensing Obi-Wan entering the atmosphere.

"Sir, more Imp ships entering the atmosphere," one of the techs said, faintly panicked.

"Assistance, I believe has arrived. From the Vengeance they will be," Yoda said to the commander, who gave him a disbelieving look.

"Sir, we've just had communication from the Vengeance, they state that they are not here to harm us, and request that we pull our people back to defend the base, to keep them out of the cross-fire. Also communication from the Leviathan, they were with the lost convoy, they have all the correct idents, and that is definitely Captain Helmeral, he says they were aided by the Vengeance," the young man on the communication board spoke up.

The commander shook his head and cursed softly under his breath.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, pull our people back, tell them not to engage unless they need to defend the base," he ordered.

The young man relayed the orders, ignoring the squawks of protest, simply continuing to issue the order until everyone who could pull back had done so.

"We've got all we can, there are still some pinned down," the young man said, watching on the screen as the new transports landed, the troops immediately disembarking and moving to engage the soldiers who had been about to surge forward into the space left by the rebel retreat, firing on the white armoured figures and their traitorous commanders.

"They've figured out how we've taken all the other ships, there are no clone troopers here, only mercenaries. Kill them all," Obi-Wan ordered into the channel that connected all his troops after sweeping the opposition with the Force the moment his feet hit the snow.

He saw one of the pinned down positions about to be overrun, and ignited his lightsaber, jumping into the fray and deflecting back a volley of blaster fire.

"Go, now," he ordered the startled rebels, his blade slashing another volley of blasts back at the men who had fired them, cutting them down with pinpoint accuracy.

There was a moment of hesitation, and the men finally obeyed, backing toward the base, firing back at anyone who fired at them.

Obi-Wan kept a fraction of his attention on his own troops, noting that they were moving to wrest control of the turbo laser turret from the enemy, which would be one less thing for Vengeance and Dominator to worry about, the rest of it, he turned on the ATATs that were pounding at the base.

They had made some effort to defend the weak points, knowing they would be facing an opponent who knew all those weak points, and they were currently stationary to try to avoid anyone tripping them, but they hadn't reckoned on him. He darted through the melee, his red blade in motion constantly, deflecting fire and cutting down mercenaries, until he stood under the rearmost ATAT. Gathering the Force, he leapt, easily landing on the top of the walker and slicing through the bolts on the hatch, dropping inside.

He recognized Captain Torell immediately, snarling as the man instantly raised his hands.

"I surrender," he whimpered, obviously realizing his time was up.

"Far, _far_, too late, Torell," he hissed, running him through.

The young man on the gun controls went for his weapon, and quickly met the same fate as his captain. Obi-Wan shoved his body away from the controls and with a wicked smile, he targeted the two ATATs in front of him, taking them out from behind, before setting the guns to overload, and jumping clear as the walker exploded behind him.

/x/

Luke and Han were covering one of the blast doors, laying down covering fire as the last stragglers came in, their retreats covered by red banded Imp troops.

"This is insane," Han growled as the three ATATs blew up.

"I wonder if Master Yoda knows who that is," Luke said quietly, watching the whirling red blade cutting through the enemy.

"What does it matter?" Han asked dismissively.

"I don't know, just a feeling that it does matter, that it matters a lot," Luke said softly.

"More mumbo jumbo?" Han snorted impatiently.

Luke shot him a dirty look, looking back outside in time to see a wampa rear up behind the figure with the red lightsaber, felling him with a vicious swipe of a massive paw.

"No," Luke yelled, taking off at a run before Han could stop him.

"Damn it Luke," Han yelled, glaring at some of the newly returned men who were still in the corridor.

"Cover this entrance, Chewie, with me," he snapped, the two of them taking off after Luke.

Fortunately the battle had moved away from this area after the destruction of the ATATs, and a shot from Chewie's bowcaster took down the wampa before it could turn its attentions to Luke.

"Where did he go?" Han demanded.

Chewie roared at the scent of blood, and gestured with one shaggy paw in the direction of scuffed snow indicating a crevasse that _had _been hidden.

Looking down, they could see the still figure lying alone in red stained snow.

"He's alive," Luke said with certainty.

Han eyed the crevasse, it wasn't overly deep, but he didn't think he or Luke would get down there without help, and he wasn't sure it was completely stable.

"What do you think Chewie?"

The Wookie eyed the icy rock walls critically, his fur and claws would help with the grip, and he could see enough hand and foot holds. It wasn't a tree, but it was climbable. Without a word, he handed his bowcaster to Han and started to carefully climb down.

/x/

Anakin felt the air leave his lungs in a rush as he sensed a bright flare of pain, and then darkness from Obi-Wan. Fighting to stop the darkness pulling him under too, he grasped the bridge railing hard and forced himself to breathe.

"Get onto the ground troops, the Emperor is injured, I want him located, now," he snarled.

Closing his eyes briefly, he was hit once again by the vision of Obi-Wan lying in red hued snow.

He turned his head sharply at a shimmer of blue to his right and saw Qui-Gon appearing there.

"He fell afoul of a wampa, he's badly hurt, but he is _not _alone, your son and his companions are getting him to help."

Anakin scowled, that could be bad, as far as these people were concerned, Obi-Wan was dead.

"They have to know you are both alive sooner or later Anakin," Qui-Gon counselled quietly, fading out again.

Cursing mentally, Anakin forced his attention onto the immediate situation, the Dominator was badly damaged, and venting atmosphere from several sections, but the Shining Sword was also badly damaged and was limpingly using the Dominator as a shield, preventing the Vengeance from taking the kill shot.

"Is the Dominator manoeuvrable?" he demanded of the communications officer.

"Barely, not enough to get their remaining weaponry to bear on the Shining Sword," he reported back after a moment.

Anakin considered, scenarios running at high speed through his mind, if Dominator couldn't move fast enough to get her guns to bear, she certainly couldn't move fast enough to ram the other ship, he could destroy her himself, but Shining Sword wasn't close enough to get caught in the blast, and it would leave the Vengeance vulnerable for a few moments while they waited for their scanners to clear.

"Commander Wylie indicates they have the turbo laser installations under their control," one of the captains reported.

"Good," Anakin said with a wolfish smile, turning away from the railing.

"Give the gun emplacements the _precise_ location of the Shining Sword, tell them to concentrate fire on it. Have the Dominator move away at her best available speed."

The orders were relayed, and the communications officer swallowed hard before looking up at Anakin.

"My Lord, the ground troops report no sightings of the Emperor after he blew up three ATATs," he informed him nervously.

Anakin grimaced, but he knew that Qui-Gon wouldn't deliberately endanger his own son, if he said Obi-Wan would get help, he would have to believe him.

"That situation is….under control…for the moment," was all he said to that.

Turbo laser fire streaked up from the planet then, striking the Shining Sword dead center and she disappeared in a chain reaction of implosions, all flames instantly snuffed out in the vacuum of space.

"Deploy repair crews, find out if the Dominator needs any help with repairs, make sure we mop up any of the Shining Sword's TIE fighters that are still out there," he ordered, his eyes drifting to the ball of ice visible through the main port. He wanted to get down there, to get to his master, but he knew that he would have to wait. He hated waiting.

/x/

Luke looked over as Yoda stumped into the small medical bay while Chewie lay the injured man on the treatment table, stepping back to allow the medical droid access.

"Do you know who he is, master Yoda?" Luke asked.

"Know him I do, know him you do," Yoda said with a sigh as the droid removed the armour before moving on to the face mask.

"Ben?" Luke whispered in shock as the face was revealed. He looked younger, his face nowhere near as aged, his hair no longer completely white, but there was no denying that it was him.

"You knew, you knew he was alive," he said accusingly, betrayal in his blue eyes.

"Yes, knew I did, asked me to tell you not, he did. Things there are you need to know, things to understand," he said firmly.

"What things?" he demanded.

"Not ready yet are you, wait for him to wake you must."

"Wait, right," he sneered, storming from the room, he hated waiting.


End file.
